The city's planning and heritage subcommittee endorsed a series of recommendations Thursday that would, if approved by council, revise the Stratford's existing street-naming policy.

That was prompted by a request in July from resident Murray Scott to name a street after the city’s most famous son, Justin Bieber.

Currently, Heritage Stratford is responsible for reviewing the list of street names for new subdivisions, development services manager Jeff Leunissen said, and either the city or the developer will select one from the list when a new street name is needed.

There are about 100 names currently on the approved list, he said, mostly prominent individuals from Stratford's past, including former members of council and businessmen.

But a new set of criteria would see the manager of development services, along with council, review requests for street names. Under those rules, the proposed street name could not conflict with other similar-sounding ones -- like the existing White Street and Whyte Avenue -- and if it's a person's name, consent would be required from the individual or their heirs.

"We don't have authorization from Mr. Bieber to use his name," Leunissen said.

Even with it, there could be issues with a Bieber Street sign.

"At least for the time being, staff believes that if we used that street name, it would be a source of mischief," said Leunissen, suggesting that there's a good chance the sign would be stolen on a regular basis or vandalized.

Scott said a street list that's loaded with the names of former councillors and city staff fails to capitalize on the tourism potential of names such as Bieber’s.